Paris: Prakash Padukone, a legend of Indian badminton and sport, is enjoying the “charm”, as he puts it, of the Games Village like a rookie. “The very first day we got to meet, I at least saw, (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Rafael) Nadal,” Padukone said. He is looking forward to sharing the same dining table with more such stars more than half his age.

The 1983 World Championships bronze medallist finds himself in the Village as part of the coaching group of PV Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medallist going for her third (Lakshya Sen too trains at his academy in Bengaluru). Padukone’s role in Team Sindhu, even as Agus Dwi Santoso remains her full-time coach, is more tactical. While the Indonesian works on adding more bite and variety to Sindhu’s strokes, Padukone chips in with when to deploy them through particular patterns of play.

“My expertise would be more on when to use those strokes, which has always been my strength... to use the right strokes at the right time. I have always emphasised on that. So, he (Agus) is making her create the strokes and my (role comes in with) when to use those strokes at the right time, so that you get a point. And maybe, introduce a little more of deception in her game, which is again part of using the right stroke at the right time,” Padukone said.

Padukone joined forces with Sindhu last year as mentor, and has since travelled with her to a few tournaments. The high-profile association came at a time when Sindhu was struggling to recreate her old game and confidence on court. Although there have been sporadic flashes of it at times this year, they’ve remained just that. Padukone wished he had more time with Sindhu.

“She’s always, always had the right strokes. So, using deception and trying to score points, that’s where I have been focusing on. You can probably see some of it. I wish I had a little more time, because it’s not easy to do it in six to nine months. And even out of that, she’s been playing tournaments. Except for these last six weeks where we had a lot of time, she’s been in and out,” he said.

Few, however, can match Sindhu’s marquee tournament medal CV. And Padukone is banking on her big moment mentality to show up again in Paris.

“It is how you handle pressure and how you peak. Her whole focus has been in trying to peak in this one week,” he said. “I think overall, I’m happy with the way she has progressed. Of course, nobody can guarantee a medal, but I can confidently say that she’ll definitely be one of the contenders.”

Sindhu won silver at the 2016 Rio Games and finished with bronze in Tokyo three years ago.

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